I awoke at around 7.30am, and grabbed the free breakfast available in the kitchen. On offer was Rice Krispies, Corn Flakes, and Weetabix, along with toast.
It was assuredly wet, with the rain being pretty determined to make its presence known.
I opted for Weetabix on a bed of rice crispies, and two slices of toast with Jam. Not a bad start to the day!
I donned my full waterproof outfit, and made my way to Scott Base where I had determined that the tour would depart from. I was in plenty of time, though the lady at the desk who dealt with the helicopter bookings, was unsure whether or not the tour would go ahead, since the path to Fox Glacier was already closed due to the weather.
Another group arrived and they were in the wrong place, and since the tour guides had not arrived, it started to look like I might be in the wrong place too, especially as the kind lady in the shop tried a few times to call various folk, to no avail.
All our fears were unfounded though, as Cliff and Sasha and their son arrived, and confirmed that the tour was the right place for me, and that it was going ahead.
We left at 9.35am on the normal shuttle bus, which was empty apart from the driver, Cliff (the guide), Patricia (from New Forest, England), and myself.
As we walk up the path, we see some people coming back down the path who advised us that the track was closed and that they couldn't get to the glacier - though this didn't impact us, as we were a guided tour and had permission to go further.
At one point we stopped for photos where there were 3 waterfalls, and I took some photos for Patricia, agreeing I would send them on to her.
We soon reached the point where the path was closed, and could see why - the ford which normally had stepping stones, was high enough that the river was over the top of the stepping stones.
By now I was accustomed to having wet feet, since being on the walk in Milford Sound, so was quite happy to wade through the river. Likewise, Patricia was quite taken by the scenery and drama of the wet day so happy to cross over
Cliff advised us that the glacier had been fairly static in the last year, but had been retreating quite a bit over the last 5 or so years, with a sizeable chunk breaking off , which he duly took us to. It was around about this point that my mobile phone decided that it had had enough and stopped working.
We shortly arrived at the end of the track, where we were unable to see the head of the glacier, which was a surprise to cliff, as he advised he had never been on a tour day since doing the tours, where you couldn't see the glacier.
We went back down the path, but before we got to the river crossing, we saw that one of the waterfalls was no longer the size it had been, and instead was now a raging torrent of black water. This didn't bode well, since it meant something had slipped up the hill somewhere, releasing a lot of water. This made the river uncrossable, so we holed up in a bothy bag and had a cup of tea and some biscuits
The bothy bag was pretty amazing, it's like a giant poncho that you put over everyone, which forms a nice sheltered area from the wind and rain.
By the time we'd had our cup of tea and some biscuits, the rain had stopped and the clouds begun to lift, so that when we came out of the bothy bag, we could see the glacier.
In addition, the river had gone down enough to allow us to cross, and Cliff helped us keep balance while we waded back - by now the river was half way up to my knees, and it was important to only lift my feet a small distance so that my legs didn't kept swept from under me.
We got back to Scott Base in good time, and Patricia gave me her details to allow me to send on the photos, tohugh seemed uncertain if I'd manage, given that my phone was well and trully defunct!
I decided to skip the wildlife centre option, and instead went back to the hostel to dry out a bit and take action to try and dry out my phone.
I met Lorian from Germany, who was just on a holiday here, and he was trying to work out what to do in the area, as didn't have any waterproof gear with him. He had decided to go to the wildlife center but discovered it was $38, which was above his budget.
The horse people eventually arrived 30 minutes late to pick me up, and took me to the horse center, where we were paired up with our horses.
By now, the weather had dried up completely, and the view of the glacier from the riverbed area and fields, while on horseback, were something to behond. I had not taken my Canon, as I felt that a bit risky whole on a horse, so the guides took photos for me and emailed them over.
The two other people taking the horse trek option were two girls from the Netherlands and Germany, and they were much more experienced at horse riding than I was, so we went separate ways when the chance to canter came along, as I felt right at my limit just on a trot!
We regrouped after that, and were led through rainforest along muddy paths, where we had to make sure the horses were not leading us through branches and trees that could take us out. It was a very worthwhile adventure, as all the previous times through rainforest on the tour so far, had been walking on boardwalks.
The two hours passed very quickly, though I am not sure I could have lasted much longer, as my knee was quite sore, and I was glad to get off the horse.
Once back at the hostel, I made up another meal of Lamb burgers, sweet potato and carrots and changed in to some dry clothes.
Leonie suggested that we go on the path along to see the glow worms in the evening, which I agreed with as I wanted to get some photos, which wasn't possible really while in Rotoroa as that was a fixed time guided walk.
Before we set off, Leonie advised me that I snore, and that Rosie also snores, which she found amusing, since apparently we were syncronised last night, such that Rosie was quiet during my snore, and I was quiet during Rosie's snore!
Before we set off, Leonie went to sort out a bank transfer to sort out her credit card situation, and then we put on insect repellent since we had seen a few mosquitoes appear in the room.
We set off as dusk drew in, and Leonie admitted to me that she was afraid of the dark, and wouldn't have come to the glow worm path if I had not agreed to go with her. She had earlier asked how old I was and seemed surprised that I said 39, she had been expecting 32.
We came to a fork in the path and decided that the sign that said "tunnels" was probably the one, and proceeded in that direction, with it getting darker as we went along. This enabled us to see more glowworms along the sides of the path, though Leonie said it made her think of eyes in the dark which kept her nervous, and she joked that I shouldn't be surprised if she jumped in to my arms if startled
We eventually made it to the tunnel, which was just that, with a river running down the floor of it, so we only really ventured a little distance in, I was nervous that a flash flood could trap us in there, and Leonie was even more nervous of the dark than before - some adventurers we were! The main deciding factor though was that there was pretty much no sign of glow worms in the tunnel and we decided that the ones on the path were a better opportunity for photos.
As such we went back down the path, and found the good spots, so I got to experiment with aperture sizes and exposure times to try and get good shots, though it seemed that Leonie's phone probably got the best shots, as it managed to get the pinpoints of light and some of the surrounding soil in the shot, whereas all I was able to get was just the pinpoints of light.
We met some people going up and advised them that the glow worms on the side of the path were the best options, as the tunnel had only 5 in total
I had been crouched down to set up the camera, and struggled to get back up, having not taken advantage of the spa following the horse ride, and Leonie joked that I was an old man after all - what cheek!
When we got back to the room we found out that nobody else was staying in the room that night.
I was nervous about getting up on time, as my phone was still dead, despite having been put in a bag with siliican gel, and so had no alarm clock. Leonie reassured me that she would be my alarm clock, as she had to get up early to hhitch a lift with some people who thought they might be leaving early too.